It is well known that in the aging process of the human body the facial skin tends to droop and become flabby with the development of wrinkles in the skin and hollowness in certain facial regions. Many persons desire to retain or restore the firmness and evenness of the facial contour which is associated with youth. Surgical face lifting has long been a common practice and is effective to tighten the facial skin. However, as a result of tightening the skin by this technique, the skin is caused to support the underlying muscle. If it is lacking in tone, it is lengthened and droopy and is the major contributing cause of wrinkled and droopy facial skin. Since the skin is not adapted to support the underlying muscles, this creates an even stronger tendency for the skin to droop and wrinkle. Consequently, the surgical face lift provides a temporarily tightened facial skin with the appearance of a lift of the facial contour; however, it also starts the process of drooping and wrinkling over again.
It is understood that the contour of the face is determined by the condition of the muscles beneath the skin. In the head and face of every typical human being there is a group of 56 separate muscles. Of all the muscles in the body, the jaw muscle is the most powerful. Yet, the only time this muscle is used and hence is taxed is when one chews, smiles, grimaces and talks. When the muscles underlying the facial skin are strong and have good tone, the skin is tight and smooth and the face has a youthful appearance. However, as the facial muscles lose tone, by reason of aging or lack of proper exercise, the muscles elongate and droop or sag. This results in a change of facial contour with attendant wrinkles in the skin.
In recent years, there have been a number of innovations in exercising apparatus to enable people to utilize various body muscles in a capacity in which they would otherwise not be exercised. However, very little, if anything at all, has been done in this area in order to permit people to exercise jaw and facial muscles.
It has been recognized that exercising facial muscles and particularly jaw muscles is highly beneficial for persons who have sustained jaw injuries. More importantly, it has also been recognized that exercising of jaw muscles and other facial muscles will have a tendency to decrease fatness beneath the skin of the human being. Consequently, facial muscle exercising has a tendency to actually increase the appearance of the individual by decreasing not only the fatness, but the wrinkles in the chin. Even more so, it has been found that the muscles which are strained by movement of the jaw when properly exercised, will decrease wrinkles around the eyes, due to the fact that it will cause a conditioning of the skin in the area around the eyes.
It has been recognized that certain people have a tendency to grind their upper and lower teeth inadvertently as a result of tension or other emotional strain. This grinding of the teeth, while utilizing muscle activity, is not really effective in exercising jaw muscles inasmuch as the action which is created is only a sliding or grinding action between upper and lower molar teeth. However, there has been some theory that this situation could be alleviated somewhat by at least exercising jaw muscles.
The problem heretofore was how to produce an effective force on the face muscles in order to tax them sufficiently to bring about the proper conditioning and toning results which are desired. In the prior art, several devices have been developed for exercising the jaw and facial muscles. The U.S. Pat. No. 1,466,559 to Purdy discloses an exercise device comprising a bite plate which is gripped between the teeth of the user. The plate is connected by means of a spring which may be connected to the wall or to a rigid handle. The jaw is exercised by pulling the head away from the wall to which the spring is fixed thus creating impulses transmitted to the teeth in order to produce a strain thereon which strain gives the several organs of the mouth and head a proper exercise to maintain the necessary circulation therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,953,088 to Purdy has a similar effect but creates resistance both when the user moves his head back and also when the user moves his head forward.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,851,865 to Ptacek and U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,696 to Ramon both disclose exerciser apparatus for enabling exercising of facial muscles and jaws through movement of the jaws. In this device, receptacles to receive the upper teeth and the lower teeth respectively are connected by means of a torque spring mechanism. The jaw and facial muscles are exercised by squeezing on a pair of arms with the teeth against the action of the biasing means.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,556 to Shaffer relates to an isometric muscle exerciser which includes a member which is clenched between the teeth and another member which presses against the lower jaw and neck muscles underneath the chin, thus acting to strengthen the masseter and related jaw and neck muscles.
Other devices such as those of Homsy, U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,367 and Beeuwkes, III, U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,502, are for the purpose of causing oscillation of the mandible.
All of these prior art devices require that the jaw muscles be exercised while the teeth are clenched or cause exercise of the jaw muscles by means of a unidirectional opening and closing of the jaw. None of the prior art devices allow exercise of a full range of motion of the jaw muscles.